County Grants

What is the County Farm Bureau Program Fund?

The County Farm Bureau Program Fund was developed by county leaders to assist County Farm Bureaus (CFBs) through grants to fund projects that will:

Develop leadership

Create member-specific programs that meet the needs of members

Increase member involvement

Strengthen the ability for the CFB to be the voice of agriculture locally

Eligibility

Grant applications can be submitted from all CFBs in Michigan. CFBs cannot apply for a joint application and an individual application for the same project.

How much money is available?

The CFB Program Fund is capped at $175,000/year.

How will grants be distributed?

Grants will be distributed as project grants. All CFBs in Michigan can be awarded a project grant. There are two grant submission periods – the first took place in the fall of 2017. Remaining dollars in the fund have a second round of applications with a May 11 deadline. Each submitted project grant will be reviewed by the Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) Grant Review Committee. There is no dollar limit on project grant proposals.

Who decides on the grants?

A Grant Review Committee consisting of a minimum of 11 county Farm Bureau representatives from each district will evaluate and make grant recommendations to the MFB board of directors. All project grants will be reviewed by the Grant Review Committee.

What are the criteria for the grants?

The grant criteria will follow the CFB Finance Task Force recommendation to the MFB Board. The application will come pre-populated with CFB specific scoring (as well as “like sized” CFB averages) for each of the following categories based on 2017 data.

CFB Liquidity*

Total member participation in the CFB

Young Farmer participation in the CFB

Are the CFB overhead/administrative costs +/- 10% of similar-sized CFBs?

Is the CFB charging an additional member assessment (full $50)?

In addition to these criteria and associated points, each county Farm Bureau will need to complete a Program Fund Application. The 2-page application is worth an additional 70 points.

For grant requests above $2,500, a copy of the 2017-18 county Farm Bureau budget and budget explanation must be included with the Program Fund Application. The Grant Review Committee will take these and other factors they deem important into account when deciding full or partial consideration when making grant determinations. Food can be included in the budget for the grant; however, no alcohol can be part of the request.